Chapter 252: A Not-So-Small Harvest

The octagonal dome, though small, was regular. Lin Sicheng arranged for four technicians to scrape the surface and called in an excavator to uncover the tomb passage.

This time it was faster; in just half an hour, the excavator unearthed the tomb beam. After digging another seven or eight buckets of earth, a stone gate with a faux-wood structure appeared before their eyes.

It was about one zhang high, sealed with bricks and stones laid flat, and covered with lime on the outside, as smooth as a table.

On both sides were stone-built pillars, with a horizontal lintel beam in the middle, topped by bracket sets, and covered with tiles.

One could say: whatever the gate of an ancient landlord's house looked like, this was it. It was just a stone imitation, without so much color, the whole thing gray from top to bottom.

After taking photos, making drawings, and setting off a string of firecrackers, Lin Sicheng pried off the first brick. Then he handed it to the technicians.

The four people, some holding probe rods, others carrying shovels, worked in an orderly fashion. The photographer filmed simultaneously, and the Data Clerk recorded in real-time.

Clearing the tomb gate revealed a long, narrow passage, about twenty meters or so, leading to another arched gate.

The previously discovered tomb tunnel was right above their heads, but Lin Sicheng still arranged for the inspection team to test the air composition.

There was basically no problem; after ventilating it slightly, the technicians quickly set up supports, and several people entered the passage.

Shining his flashlight around, Wang Qi Zhi's face was full of disappointment: the tomb tunnel above was only as wide as a person's waist, but the arched gate had been completely demolished on one side; never mind a Grave Robber, even an elephant could be shoved through it.

So, how many items could possibly be left in the tomb?

Lin Sicheng, however, was quite calm. After arranging for the technicians to dismantle the arched gate and set up protection, he lifted a flashlight and shone it onto the tomb wall.

It was a blue-gray material with molded color paintings, but due to the sudden ventilation and oxidation, the color paintings had already peeled off completely, leaving only the molded patterns on the bricks.

There were many styles, and they were printed quite regularly, with deer, turtles, cranes, as well as lotus flowers and peonies.

Lin Sicheng looked row by row, all the way to the very bottom. Suddenly, he squatted down.

Wang Qi Zhi and Sun Jiamu, not understanding why, followed suit and squatted down too. Looking closely, there seemed to be characters on the bricks in the bottom row.

But they must have been soaked by water and had developed alkaline deposits, making the inscriptions blurry and the handwriting incomplete. Lin Sicheng traced them with his finger as he looked, piecing them together; it took several blocks to read the gist: Buried in the third year of Chunhua.

"Buried in the third year of Chunhua... Chunhua is the fourth reign title of Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Guangyi. The first year of Chunhua was 990, so the third year was 992. This means this tomb is already one thousand and sixteen years old..."

Halfway through, Wang Qi Zhi sighed: it was indeed quite early. Although the tomb was not large, judging by the structure of the tomb gate and the burial chamber, the deceased was at least of the wealthy landlord class. The burial goods certainly would not be few, perhaps even more than Lin Sicheng had speculated.

But the problem was, it had already been raided by thieves; no matter how much was buried, how many pieces could be left now?

Thinking this to himself, the technicians dismantled the arched gate. Shining a light inside, sure enough, it was exactly as Lin Sicheng had said: the burial chamber was square, with both length and width around three meters, just nine square meters.

After looking carefully for a while, Wang Qi Zhi's eyes widened: apart from a few bricks, there was actually nothing inside the burial chamber?

There was no coffin, no burial goods, not even any remains. There were only a few blue bricks that had been removed when the Grave Robber broke the gate.

But this wasn't right.

Even if it had been a long time and the wooden coffin had turned to dust, the bones couldn't have all turned to dust, right? At least a piece of the skull should have remained?

And even if it had been raided by thieves, it was impossible to steal the bones too, right?

But there really was nothing; in such a small space, it was impossible not to see it.

After staring for a long time and even poking around with a probe rod, the moment it hit the ground, there was a "clang" sound.

There was a layer of soil left after the mud had dried on the floor, but it was only a few centimeters thick; it couldn't hide anything.

So, was this an empty tomb?

"Where is the coffin?"

Lin Sicheng kicked the ground: "It rotted into dust long ago!"

"Then what about the remains?"

"The tomb was repeatedly flooded, and the bacteria multiplied several times faster than normal. The remains also decomposed into dust long ago. I estimate that even if anything is left, it would only be a few teeth!"

It had been flooded?

Wang Qi Zhi looked left and right, always feeling something was wrong.

How could a burial chamber that had been repeatedly flooded be so clean?

With this thought, the three continued to walk inside. Further ahead was an arched gate leading directly to the side chamber, which was slightly smaller than this one. Shining the flashlight over, there were tables and desks, and even statues; it seemed there were quite a few things?

Wang Qi Zhi's spirits lifted: "Let's go in and take a look!"

Lin Sicheng nodded, and he and Sun Jiamu followed behind Wang Qi Zhi. Fearing they would damage the relics inside the tomb, the three turned sideways and entered the side chamber, keeping close to the tomb wall.

The three stood still, and when they shone their flashlights again, Wang Qi Zhi's face fell once more.

There were indeed many things: one Tomb-Suppressing Beast, one Stone Guardian, one set of Stone Incense Table, plus half a pottery jar and a few broken pieces of pottery.

But to be honest, Lin Sicheng had come looking for Luan Bai Yu Ci; what was he supposed to do with so many stone Cultural Relics?

Was he disappointed to the extreme?

Just as he was thinking this, Lin Sicheng picked up a half-broken pottery jar, looking at it inside and out, over and over again, for several minutes.

Suddenly, he laughed again.

Sun Jiamu and Wang Qi Zhi were confused and leaned in.

"Was this fired at the Hejin Kiln?"

Lin Sicheng shook his head: "No, this should be Sandware from Xipo Town, which shows that during the Song Dynasty, they were already firing Purple Clay Ware there!"

Wang Qi Zhi looked puzzled: "Then what are you laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at this group of Grave Robbers: there should have been two pairs of this kind of pottery jar, and now only half a broken piece remains, which means the other three and a half were all taken away. The saying goes that a thief never leaves empty-handed, but it doesn't say they take everything; yet this group of thieves didn't even spare a broken pottery jar? This style is on par with Yang San (Yang Bin) from Shaanxi..."

What else could it be?

Even if it was just a pottery jar, it was still a pottery jar from the Northern Song Dynasty.

With this thought, Wang Qi Zhi shone his flashlight and looked: "Can you determine when it was robbed?"

"Yes!" Lin Sicheng shone his light on the tomb tunnel above: "More than three years ago, but within five years!"

Wang Qi Zhi and Sun Jiamu sighed in unison and said nothing more.

Roughly guessing what they were sighing about, Lin Sicheng smiled again: "Although it is an empty tomb, the harvest is actually quite significant!"

Harvest, what harvest?

The two looked at each other and looked around again.

Was it those two stone figures, or that Tomb-Suppressing Beast, or perhaps the tomb bricks and tomb walls, or even this half of a rotten Pottery Jar?

While he was suspicious, Lin Sicheng shone his light on the wall: "Teacher, Division Chief Sun, look!"

Look at what? Besides green bricks, there were only more green bricks.

"Look here!"

As he spoke, Lin Sicheng lifted his Probe Rod and thrust it downward. With a "hiss," the tip of the rod slanted into the brick wall.

Looking closer, it had gone in at least thirty or forty centimeters; surely this wall wasn't made of tofu?

Wang Qi Zhi's eyes revealed suspicion, then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he recalled the sentence Lin Sicheng had just said: This tomb had been flooded repeatedly...

"The tomb chamber was flooded, and the stone walls were soaked until they turned soft?"

Lin Sicheng nodded: "Correct!"

"But where did the water come from? A flash flood?" Wang Qi Zhi narrowed his eyes, "It doesn't look like it."

If it were a flash flood, with mud accumulating year after year, the tomb chamber would have been filled solid long ago?

"Not a flash flood, but river water!" Lin Sicheng pointed to the tomb ceiling, "Above the tomb, there used to be an ancient riverbed!"

Wang Qi Zhi was stunned for a moment: What on earth?

(End of this chapter)